Listening
by madmadkid
Summary: Just a bit of early ME1 Shenko fluff. Shepard can't sleep but luckily her new Lieutenant's there to keep her company.


The course was laid in for the Artemis Tau cluster and the Normandy was well into the night cycle as Shepard made her way quietly through the crew deck. She had always had trouble adjusting to the sleep schedules of new ships. And seeing the horrific vision from the prothean beacon every time she drifted off wasn't helping.

When she couldn't sleep, Shepard always liked to walk the ship. It was much better than tossing and turning on her cramped Alliance-issue bed and she enjoyed the quiet. Arriving at the mess hall, Shepard learned she wasn't the only insomniac on board. That cuter-than-he-had-any-right-to-be Lieutenant was seated at the table in the middle of the room looking intently over his omnitool.

"Alenko. Can't sleep either?" He tensed; she had snuck up on him.

"Commander? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry," she laughed, "Still going over the Eden Prime report?"

"No actually, it's some mail from back home. My mom writes a lot." Shepard couldn't help the small chuckle that bubbled up.

"I never would have figured you for a mama's boy, Lieutenant."

"Haha, laugh it up—ah, ma'am," Kaidan stammered.

"Oh don't be like that," Shepard teased as she took the seat next to him. "You don't see a lot of officers who still write to their moms. It's very sweet."

"She worries. Eden Prime and the Normandy are all over the news back home."

"She sounds nice." Shepard smiled. "What's she like?"

"You don't really want to hear me ramble on about my family do you, ma'am?"

"It's a long ride to Therum and I can't sleep. Ramble away, Lieutenant."

"All right," he laughed, "if you're going to pull rank on me. Let's see-my dad's retired Alliance, but my folks still live in Vancouver. They didn't like the idea of me enlisting at first, my mom especially. I'm an only child; she worried of course. She thought I was only joining because of my biotics. The Alliance was one place I could actually put my abilities to good use."

Something about the low rumble of his voice and the cadence of his speech was comforting. Shepard pulled her knees up to her chest, crossing her arms around her legs and resting her chin atop one knee.

It was getting hard to concentrate on what he was saying. She couldn't stop her tired mind from drifting. She was really starting to like this cuter-than-he-had-any-right-to-be Lieutenant. He was a good officer, sure. Intelligent, politically savvy and his biotics were impressive to say the least, but he also seemed like a really decent guy too. He had been genuinely concerned about her after the Eden Prime beacon knocked her out and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't found his awkward way of calling her beautiful when they were overlooking the Wards on the Citadel adorable, even if it was completely against regulations. _Right. Regs._ This was her Lieutenant she was thinking of as adorable. Shepard hadn't made a habit of initiating inappropriate relationships with her subordinates and she really shouldn't start now that she was a Council Spectre.

But that voice. There was this warmth in his tone as he talked about his family. It was really putting her at ease sitting with him. Shepard let out a small, contented sigh. Thoughts of the regulations against fraternization receded further into the recesses of her mind as she thought about what it would be like to be held by him and feel the rumble of his voice in his chest.

"Ah—Commander?" Shepard suddenly snapped out of her musings. "Am I putting you to sleep, ma'am?"

"I really like listening to you talk," Shepard blurted out. Kaidan's eyes widened in surprise. She could feel her face heating up and stumbled over her words to turn what she had said into something at least resembling what would be appropriate for a military commander to say to her subordinate.

"I—I mean—the tone of your voice—it's quite soothing." _Well that wasn't much better._ "Uh—you know it's um—relaxing?"

Shepard could see the look of surprise on Kaidan's face slowly turn into a mixture of sheepish embarrassment and amusement as he let out a soft chuckle. She buried her face in her hands, thanking whatever god existed that it was the night cycle and no one else was around to witness her terribly unsmooth comment.

"Oh just please forget I said anything," she said, her voice coming out muffled through her fingers. "Time to go to sleep I think. Yep definitely time to get some sleep. Thanks for the chat, Lieutenant." Shepard got up out of the chair so fast she almost felt dizzy. Or maybe that was the buzzing in her head from how incredibly mortified she was.

"Uh—you're welcome, ma'am." Kaidan still had that bemused, slightly surprised expression on his face when Shepard turned on her heel and made a beeline for her cabin.

That man was gonna be trouble.


End file.
